1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to disposable bags, and in particular to disposable bags for the collection and monitoring of body fluids.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is a common procedure in the field of medicine to collect and monitor the volume of fluids entering and exiting the body of a sick patient. The fluid collection and volume measurement may be done to evaluate the patient's progress toward better health or to assure that the patient maintains an acceptable fluid balance between intake and discharge.
In many illnesses, the patient will periodically vomit, thereby discharging a quantity of fluid from the body. The complete control and measurement of bodily fluid balance requires that this vomit be included for analysis with the other body fluids, such a urine. The bag of the present invention is adapted to the collection of either vomit or urine.
In addition to monitoring fluid volume, it is important to securely contain any vomit or urine of a sick patient in order to minimize contamination and spread of disease. Therefore, there is a need to effectively seal the container once the fluid has been collected.
A further use of a disposable bag for the collection of vomit occurs in airplanes where motion sickness may induce regurgitation. While some of the requirements relating to sick patients do not apply to airplane passenger use, it is nonetheless important to collect any vomit as neatly as possible and to seal the collecting bag to prevent spillage in a moving airplane.
Fluid collecting bags have been disclosed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,734 to Fluery et al. for DISPOSABLE BAGS and U.S. Pat, No. 4,990,145 to Fluery for DISPOSABLE BAG WITH HAND PROTECTION, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference. Both of these patents teach a disposable bag having a manually openable funnel at the top and an internal "duck-bill" type valve within the bag. In addition, a fluid collection bag (hereinafter referred to as the EMS bag) of design similar to the patent teachings and including a printed scale for the measurement of fluid volume is supplied by E.M.S. Alliance of Richmond, Calif. In all these prior art bag constructions, the entry funnel protrudes above the upper extremity of the bag. The "duck-bill" valve is depended upon as the principal means for sealing the bag's contents. In addition, score lines below the upper edge of the funnel permit upper portions of the funnel to be folded in overlapping relation for additional protection against spillage. However, the folded portions of the funnel do not form a leak proof seal and at best prevent large particles form being sloshed out of the bag.
The primary drawback of each of the know fluid collection bag designs is that the sealing means is insufficient either to prevent disease spread or spills in case of dropping or inverting the filled bag. In order to properly seal the existing bags, it is necessary to either tape the funnel closed after use or insert the filled bag into another container. A second shortcoming relating to the hospital setting is that in order to identify the contents of the bag for record keeping purpose, one must attach a tag or label, since no provision is made for writing on the type of bag in current use.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a bag for the collection body fluids with integral and substantially improved sealing means.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a bag for the collection of body fluids and constructed so as to permit written information to be applied to the bag itself thereby eliminating the, need for a separate, tag or label.
Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.